• Wamunyinyi said the public ought to have been considered and involved in the decision-making process before the invitation to tender was issued.
• Wamunyinyi has sued CS Agriculture Mithika Linturi who he says posted a tender invitation on ministry website on January 16.
Image: FILE
Plans by the State to revive struggling millers by leasing them to private investors for a period of 20 years may not sail through following a case filed at the Milimani Law Courts challenging the same.
Athanas Wafula Wamunyinyi has asked the High Court to intervene and stop the intended privatisation of the publicly-owned Nzoia, Chemelil, Muhoroni and South Nyanza sugar companies through a long term lease.
He says the public ought to have been considered and involved in the decision-making process before the invitation to tender was issued.
Wamunyinyi has sued CS Agriculture Mithika Linturi who he says posted a tender invitation on ministry website on January 16 asking prospective bidders to submit tenders for the leasing of the companies.
His PS and the Attorney General have also been listed as second and third respondents in the case.
“This was done abruptly without any consultation with the members of the public and unless court intervenes and hears the matter urgently, the Respondents will proceed to illegally lease out public sector-owned/controlled sugar companies without any public participation from the public offending the Constitution as well as the principles of public procurement,” he says.
He wants the court to hear the matter on a priority basis as the invitation to tender is set to expire on February 15, 2024.
Also sought is an order halting further and continued tendering process of the international tender notice advertised by Linturi pending hearing and determination of the matter.
According to court documents, eight days before the invitation was published, Linturi and his PS wrote a letter to the managing directors of Nzoia Sugar Company Ltd, Chemilil Sugar Company Ltd and the South Nyanza Sugar Company Ltd.
They allegedly compelled them to pass resolutions to hand over powers to the ministry to enable them carry out procurement of the leases for the respective companies.
The Respondents, according to Wamunyiyi, went ahead to offer to assign the managing directors' standard extracts of the board resolutions for signing on or before January 11, 2024 only five days before the notice of tender was published.
"The CS and his PS have no power in law to compel the board by asking them to pass a resolution. They are in clear abuse of delegated sovereign power as this would mean that they are just puppeteers at whose whim everyone falls,' Wamunyinyi argues in his suit.